Rimell unconcerned by Oneway’s welter burden
The 10-year-old has not won for almost two years, but after enduring a troubled campaign last season, he has shown marked signs of a revival and chased home Voy Por Ustedes at Kempton last time.
“I’m not that worried about giving the weight away,” Rimell said with regard to the upcoming Ascot test.
“He’s got the weight for a reason and that’s because he’s a good horse.
“He carries weight every day. He’s a big strong horse and I’d rather have more weight and less opposition than the other way round.”
After a disappointing reappearance at Cheltenham in November, Oneway bounced back to form when third behind Kauto Star in the William Hill – Tingle Creek Chase.
“I was delighted with him in the Tingle Creek and we felt after his first two runs of the season that he would have improved for both of them,” Rimell told At The Races.
“We then had him absolutely cherry ripe for Kempton but Voy Por Ustedes is obviously a very, very good horse and we are probably 7lb behind him.
“But I felt it was the track that beat him as much as the other horse that day.
“He was probably just caught a bit flat-footed – he’s a dual course and distance winner around Sandown and that’s a more similar course to Ascot than what Kempton would be.
“Consequently, I think this weekend it will be more suited to him than the Desert Orchid Chase was.
“I’m hopeful but I’m not quite sure how good Saintsaire and Mansony are, but I think whatever beats him will be winning.”
Rimell is hoping for a sound surface and added: “Ideally he would want good ground but he’d go on anything and I won an amateur chase on him a long time ago in heavy ground around Lingfield.
“Admittedly that was in poor company but it was over two and a half miles in soft ground. I’d rather it was good but he’ll take his chance whatever the ground.”
Nicky Henderson is also hoping the ground does not become too testing.
The Seven Barrows handler is likely to saddle both 2006 hero Tysou and Greenhope in the £140,000 race but admits the well-fancied Saintsaire, a former inmate of his, will take a deal of beating.
“I think the best chance I have of winning it is if Paul Nicholls would like to give me Saintsaire back,” he joked.
“Saintsaire will go in the ground and Tysou and Greenhope might not but we don’t know what it’s going to be.
“With the rain we’ve had here this morning I can’t expect it to be anything but soft, especially at Swinley Bottom, in which case we are going to struggle.
“Tysou won it last year when it was rescheduled at Sandown and Greenhope did win the Grand Annual last year, which was great.
“He’s possibly a better horse going left-handed and he likes good ground but essentially both horses run at the moment,” he told At The Races.
After the rainfall, Ascot clerk of the course Chris Stickels is unsurprisingly predicting the ground will have some give in it at the weekend.
“The course was drying a little on Monday but since then we’ve had four millimetres of rain and there is more rain forecast,” said Stickels.
“The forecast remains unsettled with lots of rain expected on Thursday.
“With this in mind, I anticipate the ground being on the soft side for the weekend.”
Victor Chandler Chase, VCBet: 3-1 Mansony, 100-30 Saintsaire, 8-1 Andreas, Oneway, Kalca Mome, 10-1 Hasty Prince, 12-1 Dempsey, Bambi De L’Orme, 16-1 Tysou, Greenhope, 20-1 Jericho III, 25-1 Mister McGoldrick.
Nicky Henderson is preparing Afsoun for Saturday’s bonusprint.com Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock in an attempt to learn where his charge stands in the two-mile pecking order.
The Trevor Hemmings-owned five-year-old returned to action with an impressive success at Newbury in November before falling in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton last time.
Of his promising inmate, Henderson said: “Everything looked very good early last year but then things went a bit pear-shaped in the Triumph and at Aintree.
“On both occasions it was just that the occasion got to him a little bit but in fairness to him he still finished fifth (in the Triumph).
“He had been favourite for the Triumph and he’d been entitled to be. Things went wrong but he started this year back in the right vein.
“He won the Gerry Feilden at Newbury and that was a good performance under a big weight and the natural step seemed to be to go for the Christmas Hurdle.
“I suppose I was pretty hopeful there – Straw Bear looked to be the horse to beat – but unfortunately we changed tactics as there wasn’t much pace and Mick (Fitzgerald) was quite happy to let him bowl along.”
All was going well until the pair parted company at the fourth last, at which point they were still travelling strongly at the head of affairs.
“He just came up a bit soon at one down the back and he fell,” explained Henderson. “We’ve come up with the Haydock race on Saturday but the ground there at the last couple of meetings has been atrocious,” he said.
